Homeless camps dot deep woods of Portsmouth

It's a warm May afternoon when Robert Lafrenier is seated under a stand of pine trees drinking Steel Reserve beer with ice in front of two lit candles.

Elizabeth Dinan

It's a warm May afternoon when Robert Lafrenier is seated under a stand of pine trees drinking Steel Reserve beer with ice in front of two lit candles.

He's deep in the woods of Portsmouth in an elaborate campsite surrounded on three sides by a barrier of piled tree branches fortified with wood pallets. On the fourth side of his Heritage Avenue campsite is a shallow body of water. Birds sing and mosquitoes swarm. A couple of pots with food residue wait to be washed. The American flag is hung inside a two-room shelter Lafrenier made by stretching tarps over tree limbs. Over the tarps is military camouflage material he says can't be seen from airplanes. He wears a matching camouflage T-shirt.

Standing in the midst it all, Lafrenier says he's "basically homeless" and stays there off-and-on. But according to the N.H. State Police sex offender registry, he's officially "homeless," with an address of "Banfield/Ocean Portsmouth."

And he's got quite a rap sheet.

Lafrenier is one of dozens of people living in the woods of Portsmouth, said police Capt. Corey MacDonald. Sometimes they live alone, he said, other times in a "mini community" of eight or more people. "Some can be a little concerning," said MacDonald, who recalled taking his 4-year-old daughter for a walk through the woods when they came upon a "tarp system" campsite with a bow and arrow in view.

As a police officer he's aware of campsites in the city that are surrounded by trip wires and booby traps designed to take intruders to the ground, he said. Spears, spikes, machetes, knives, guns and "elaborate look-out systems" have been found at other sites, he said.

"We certainly have safety concerns about kids going through the woods and coming across booby traps," he said. "It's not like we have roving bands of criminals in the woods, but it is hard to police these mini-communities."

Camp concerns

Known areas for homeless camps include behind the Bowl-O-Rama plaza, in the woods off the railroad tracks that run through the city, off Arthur Brady Drive, around Pease International Tradeport and off Route 33. MacDonald said people are also known to reside in a tomb at the North Cemetery and one man with a local criminal record is known to live in "a cave" off Little Harbor Road.

Police Capt. Mike Schwartz said "any place there is some seclusion," a homeless site might crop up. "We deal with it in construction sites, abandoned buildings, abandoned vehicles and we've had people in crawl spaces," he said.

Schwartz lives "in classic suburbia" Portsmouth, he said, where neighbors recently came to him to report a person living behind their shed. He said it took "two or three times" for the person to "get the message" and relocate. The property owners didn't want to press charges.

MacDonald said some of the forest dwellers stay at the Cross Roads House homeless shelter during the winter, then move to the woods for the remainder of the year. Others sleep at the shelter at night and set up camp for drinking during the day, he said. And some, according to police, live in the woods because they were barred from the shelter.

Many have a combination of mental health and substance abuse issues, MacDonald said. A segment is looking for shelter, he said, while for most it's "sort of the lifestyle."

With that lifestyle comes thefts from parked cars and beer stolen from stores, Schwartz said. Local teens have also been known to make deals with vagrants for the purchase of alcohol, he added.

Trash left at the sites is another "disturbing" concern, MacDonald said. "I've been to areas where there were literally 500 beer cans," he said. "Some of them look like dump sites and unfortunately when they leave these campsites they don't clean up."

Fires are also a problem. Even with a wet spring there have been several this year. On April 1, workers in a control tower at Portsmouth International Airport reported seeing black smoke and an hour later, a pantless man walking barefoot along Banfield Road led officers to a brush fire at his wooded campsite.

A couple of weeks later, Police Chief Lou Ferland saw smoke coming from the woods off Route 33 and hiked in to where he found two fires burning at campsites.

Ferland extinguished the second one by grabbing a 12-pack of beer at the site and pouring it onto the fire.

By May of last year a half-dozen fires had sparked at homeless camps. "The homeless population is trying to do the best they can to survive, but unfortunately they're doing it in a manner that can be hazardous with campfires that are getting out of control," Assistant Fire Chief Steve Achilles said at the time.

Last August four fire crews worked for three hours dousing several fires started at campsites in the woods off Banfield Road. A forestry truck had to be refilled twice. A week later firefighters were called when a couch was found burning in the woods behind the Button Factory on Islington Street.

Camp sights

There are more campsites in the city than any other area community, said MacDonald, because the city offers more services for the disadvantaged. Free meals are available at the shelter as well as daily dinners at the Salvation Army. The shelter now has a dental clinic and a truck visits regularly to offer free health care.

Accessing Lafrenier's campsite requires a hike through the woods over a worn path covered with pine needles and cones. Off to the left and a smaller hike is his site, which looks like a brush pile even up close. Then there's a climb over the four-foot-tall brush-and-pallet barrier.

It's a tidy campsite with a Mongoose bicycle, a mirror on a tree, pots and pans, a radio and a solar light that Lafrenier said doesn't work. There are sundries like vitamins, bar and dish soap, shovels and a tube of muscle rub cream. He's got a tin of rolling tobacco, tennis racket and a pair of intimidating Halloween masks displayed on the roof of the shelter that he "figured would scare away the kids."

Seating includes an old office chair and a plastic chair one might set up for a yard party. He buys water by the gallons, he said, and everything is lugged in.

Lafrenier said he's lived in Portsmouth all his life, has lots of family in the area and at some point lost his job and his apartment. "Even when I had an apartment," he said, "I used to come down here and hang out."

Lafrenier said he hoped a visit by Seacoast Sunday with a police officer wasn't a prerequisite to the demolition of his site. He spent a great deal of time making it, he said.

Meanwhile he's listed on the sex offender registry as having two convictions for felonious sexual assault in 2003. His criminal history is also cited as including convictions for thefts, failing to report to police as a sex offender, simple assault, resisting arrest, reckless conduct and trespassing.

Schwartz said police bar people from camping on property primarily in response to complaints from property owners. On the other hand, he said, it can be helpful to know exactly where they all are.

MacDonald concurred. "If you do move them along, he said, "where are you moving them along to?"

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